Today, I had a false awakening loop. It was a loop of about 5-6 false awakenings. At first It would be a long scene because I have not realized it was a false awakening yet. In the first one, I dreamt that I picked up my phone, turned off the alarm, went out of the room to get shoes to wear. I tried to close my pants because the zipper and the button were unlocked so that I can breathe better when I sleep and the first odd thing happened: my pants were suddenly so loose.

Tip 1 to know that you are still dreaming (Based on my own experiences): There are things that appear to be untrue or odd in real life but happen in the dream.

I proceeded to step out of the house to go to work and the loop started from the top. I woke up, turned off my alarm, went out of my room, this time, my pants were okay. So, I proceeded to go get shoes. I was looking at the pair I was picking up and recognized that It was a pair of shoes that I had in High School and I don't have that pair anymore. I don't remember what happened to it. That was the strong signal that I was in a dream. Same as the first one, I proceeded to head out the door, and then the loop started over.

On the third FA, the shoes I took from the shoe rack were shoes that I had in college but I left at my aunt's house and since then I have not gotten them back anymore because I always see my aunt wearing them and I figured, If she likes it so much why don't I just give them to her. But in that FA, that pair was back with me, and from that instant I realized I WAS IN A LOOP! I went back to bed tried to sleep in the dream, to see if I can wake up for real this time. But ALAS, I was back in the loop, I know I was still in the loop because after the fourth FA, I tried to wake my boyfriend up because he sleeps beside me, but he doesn't wake up. I went back to sleep to try to wake up again.

On the fifth attempt at actually waking up, I checked on the time and I was shocked to see that I was already EXTREMELY late for work. That was when I knew I was still in a dream. This time I started panicking. I was already thinking to myself, what if I don't ever wake up from this? What happens to my clean attendance record at work - I know what you're thinking. LOL.

On the last attempt, since I knew I was still asleep, I was already conscious, I tried screaming to see if my BF can wake me up. Oftentimes in nightmares where I am conscious that I am still dreaming, this is what I would do. I SCREAM. My boyfriend always wakes me up and tells me I was grunting. Weird right?

Tip # 2: If in your dream, you were screaming at the top of your lungs, you actually aren't in real life. You will just be making some random weird noises. I don't know why this happens, so if someone can explain to me why my "Dream scream" doesn't translate to an actual scream, that would be great.

So, I was screaming and screaming, and as expected my BF woke me up. He said it was as if he heard me call my dad's name in a "grunting" kindda way, or another way he described it was that it sounded as if I was loosing air but was still trying to call someone's name. This was definitely weird because in my dream I was calling him, not my dad. So, I was able to wake up for real this time, and I didn't arrive late for work. But on my journey to my workplace I was still a bit dazed and confused and I am still trying to check for signs to determine if I was in fact awake. If everything around me is real. I don't even know if what I am doing now, as I am typing this, is real. OR AM I STILL IN A DREAM?